Nezame, from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)"

Nezame is a Meiji woodblock print by Tsukioka Kogyo from his 1893 series Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue), preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The image translates a noh scene into the disciplined vocabulary of noh-e: the central figure stands in formal stage costume against a restrained ground, the robe articulated with carefully chosen colors and finely registered line, while the mask is oriented to convey the play's mood. Kogyo trained under Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Ogata Gekko, and Nezame shows the lineage in its measured composition, the precision of its drawing, and the spare quality of its background. The Nogaku Zue series, begun in the early 1890s, is widely regarded as the foundational project of Meiji noh-e, both for its scale and for the seriousness with which it treats theatrical accuracy alongside printmaking craft. Each sheet doubles as a usable record of a specific play and as a finished Meiji woodblock print in its own right, attentive to the conventions of mask, robe, and gesture that experienced theatergoers expected. The Art Institute of Chicago documents the impression at https://www.artic.edu/artworks/155387, anchoring it within a major museum holding of Kogyo's noh prints. For collectors, Nezame is a representative example of how Tsukioka Kogyo extended the woodblock tradition into the realm of classical Japanese drama while preserving the meditative gravity that defines noh as a performed art.